Stats On Google Web Designer; BuzzFeed's Programmatic President

In announcing the one-year anniversary of its Google Web Designer product, which offers HTML5 integration for creating ads, the DoubleClick Advertiser blog shares some stats that it claims show traction, including: “In the first half of 2014, DoubleClick Rich Media ad impressions from HTML5 grew 140% compared to the second half of 2013; Ads built with Google Web Designer have garnered 2.5B impressions since the launch of the product; Over 20% of Google Web Designer’s user base are returning users and 72% are located outside the United States.” The creative and media inexorably merge. Read about new product updates.

The Buzz

BuzzFeed's new president has big programmatic aspirations, according to Ad Age. In a Q&A published Wednesday, Greg Coleman touched on native, mobile and video strategies. But for a publisher that has vehemently rejected banner ads from the start, tapping into programmatic has proved difficult for BuzzFeed. Still, Coleman is hoping to find a way to automate. "Getting into the world of programmatic is going to take a lot of work, ingenuity and creativity. And maybe we won't get there,” he said. “We're certainly going to put our heads together to see if there is a really intelligent way … [to] crack that code." Coleman comes to BuzzFeed from Criteo, where he served as president for the ad tech firm, eventually leading the business to an IPO. Read it.

Food Fiiiiight

It appears that buying platform and DMP Turn and video ad platform TubeMogul are at war. TubeMogul has published a retort to what it says are Turn’s claims in the marketplace. The page on Tubemogul.com begins as follows: “Recently, TURN released a ‘fact sheet’ [link provided by TubeMogul] outlining why they believe their platform is ‘the superior choice to TubeMogul.’ While we welcome a little friendly competition, there is just one problem with Turn's claims: they are lies.” TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson said in a tweet Wednesday that it isn’t a war, “We're just responding to Turn's false and misleading info.” AdExchanger has reached out to Turn, but no response yet.

Setting The Bar

Innovation paves the way for adaptability and, ultimately, broadens the scope of what's attainable. This is the theme of Doug Weaver's weekly installment of The Drift. Weaver fascinatingly details the history of high jump as a metaphor to describe the modern marketing landscape. Before the invention of foam rubber, which Weaver explains is what’s now used to break a jumper's fall, high jumpers had a much different method of getting over the bar. For high jumpers in the early ’60s, foam rubber changed the game. "Real-time, data enabled marketing, programmatic audience buying, cheap and plentiful broadband access, social and sharing technologies," writes Weaver. "These are the foam rubber of our age." Read on.

Interactive Video Investment

Boulder, Colo.-based digital video startup Rapt Media has raised $3.1 million, TechCrunch reported Wednesday. The company's offerings are interactive and provide a customizable advertising platform, according to co-founder and CEO Erika Trautman. In fact, the co-founders are so keen to protect their tech’s place in the interactive digital video space that they've filed for five separate patents around their product. In other news, the company said it will use the recent funding to open new offices in New York and Los Angeles. Read more.

Tapjoy’s Got Game

Tapjoy wants to be an app developer’s everything. The app monetization platform acquired Seoul, South Korea-based app analytics company 5Rocks Wednesday in a bid to become a one-stop shop for mobile app-tech services. The deal, after which details were not disclosed, positions Tapjoy as a full-scale provider of mobile analytics, automation and ad-based monetization solutions in a single SDK. Wonder what newly minted Yahoo company Flurry thinks of that.Read more in VentureBeat.